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A review by vulturetime
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
2.5
This is what the lads call a personal disappointment. There's a number of critiques I have of the book, which largely come down to personal preference. It's almost 2 am right now so this is really just going to be notes on different aspects of the books that I have critiques of.
The structure:
The pacing and the division of storylines was honestly not it. I personally try to go into stories knowing as little as possible, not because I think spoilers ruin a story but because I inevitably cook up a story I like more than the actual story which just leads to disappointment. So I knew very little of the plot going on.
As such, the division of POVs was honestly a bit annoying in that Tane's storyline received so little comparative attention. Ead's storyline received the most, and while Niclays and Loth didn't have too many chapters, the latter was largely connected to Ead's storyline and Niclays' often felt more self contained than Tane's.This makes Tane's eventual role such like. bullshit to me, because we barely get to see her and now she's really important at the end and instead of feeling like she's a fleshed out character, it just felt rushed. The blurb focuses on Sabran, Ead and Tane so like. You'd think Tane would have had more of a prevalent role in the story consistently but noooo .
This book is very long and because it is trying to be so expansive, at least for me, the emotion really suffered as a result. I couldn't really get into the characters' headspaces because the readers are often just dumped into moments with a recap of the past few days (that were covered offscreen), something that is meant to be thought-provoking or a motif, and then move on. There are cases where this kind of pacing does hit, but it doesn't happen consistently. I think this book should have been longer so that each character could have felt more like actual people.
The prose:
This relates to the last part of the structure critiques, which is that there's a lot of "telling" essentially. The most annoying example to me is that of the "ghost" metaphor with Tane. It just started being inserted into the text that Tane is "like a ghost" or "became a ghost" or the old her was dead and all that was left was "a ghost" and it's like bitch stfu already. All the pieces were there to make this a good haunting metaphor but the emotion just really wasn't there, for me.
Additionally, the story is in third-person limited, but highkey, if you removed all identifying details from the passages (names), I don't think I could immediately distinguish between the POVs. I do wish that the author had gotten into thought processes more.
The characters:
They basically all fell kinda flat for me. Niclays I did feel something for but everyone else I was like idgaf. I am the most mad about Tane because I feel like her storyline was just so much wasted potential.Partially because I don't like the trope of "hidden magic bloodline" especially when a lot of a character's chip is the fact that they come from nowhere and nobody. Just feels like a cop out. But also her classmates only reappeared in the end of the story and it's just like. bruhhh she was so under utilized.
The structure:
The pacing and the division of storylines was honestly not it. I personally try to go into stories knowing as little as possible, not because I think spoilers ruin a story but because I inevitably cook up a story I like more than the actual story which just leads to disappointment. So I knew very little of the plot going on.
As such, the division of POVs was honestly a bit annoying in that Tane's storyline received so little comparative attention. Ead's storyline received the most, and while Niclays and Loth didn't have too many chapters, the latter was largely connected to Ead's storyline and Niclays' often felt more self contained than Tane's.
This book is very long and because it is trying to be so expansive, at least for me, the emotion really suffered as a result. I couldn't really get into the characters' headspaces because the readers are often just dumped into moments with a recap of the past few days (that were covered offscreen), something that is meant to be thought-provoking or a motif, and then move on. There are cases where this kind of pacing does hit, but it doesn't happen consistently. I think this book should have been longer so that each character could have felt more like actual people.
The prose:
This relates to the last part of the structure critiques, which is that there's a lot of "telling" essentially. The most annoying example to me is that of the "ghost" metaphor with Tane. It just started being inserted into the text that Tane is "like a ghost" or "became a ghost" or the old her was dead and all that was left was "a ghost" and it's like bitch stfu already. All the pieces were there to make this a good haunting metaphor but the emotion just really wasn't there, for me.
Additionally, the story is in third-person limited, but highkey, if you removed all identifying details from the passages (names), I don't think I could immediately distinguish between the POVs. I do wish that the author had gotten into thought processes more.
The characters:
They basically all fell kinda flat for me. Niclays I did feel something for but everyone else I was like idgaf. I am the most mad about Tane because I feel like her storyline was just so much wasted potential.
The worldbuilding: (I got the most gripes about this)
- So why was there so little about dragons in here? Why didn't we get to see more about dragons? Yes we got some wyrm action but like, that was about it. If I didn't know the dragon characters were dragons I probably wouldn't have guessed they weren't human. Why are they so human like. Why is a god calling its rider "little sister" -- something like "child/hatchling/starling" would've been more appropriate if going along the kin route. These dragons had a lot of talk around them but really not a lot of action. Especially with what the deal was with the nameless one.
- Speaking of the nameless one. So at first, I was like "this is stupid, we don't see anything of him like wtf." Then I tried to pacify myself and reminded myself that when only looking at the LOTR trilogy, we don't learn a whole lot about Sauron's motivations either (beyond what he wants). But then I remembered that you actually see Sauron's impact all over the world and you encounter his underlings directly AND the ring is an extension of him. The nameless one did not have that reach At All. He had Fyredel and wyrms were waking up but honestly? There was not a whole lot of dragon fighting. It just felt kind of stupid.
- Part of this has to do with the fact that for such an expansive story, it still remains so self-contained. You barely get to see the actual destruction wrought by the wyrms or the lives lost or most of the consequences for people who aren't the main characters. Which is like. Not a sin for a book but it's boring to me to read.
- What the fuck even is Virtudom. Since that is the government we see the most of I will complain the most about it: the kingdom of Inys was founded on the ideas of six "virtues" which includes things about purity. Now, here's the thing. Those are real standards held against women (like the idea of purity) and though there is some discussion of like,
how Sabran was almost molded into the obedient and completely virtuous queen with no personality or backbone, it is solely in the context of that one character (and technically some of her predecessors). No talk as to the effects on society as a whole. There are a lot of similar gaps with the other nations and it just makes me baffled. You don't have to include every detail, but like, going back to LOTR, Tolkien was great at hinting at the larger story behind something while not giving it to you. This is probably because Tolkien actually knew the larger story. He knew his world incredibly well. - Along that point, the themes of kingdom/empire and the "feminism" just kinda ticked me off. Like I get that this book's goal is not to talk about imperialism but like. the fact that "virtudom" is led by what is probably fairly restrictive morals (and on the pain of death oftentimes) has got to have a strong effect on society that is overall negative! and it's just not talked about. everything even remotely concerning about these nations was just brushed off to the side to focus on the plot of stopping the nameless one, and yet, book was still rushed at the end. The "feminism" aspect remains because like. Yes there were a lot of female characters in this story and many of them had positions of power. The main female characters had pretty surface level flaws though (in that they barely affected the narrative). Let the female characters be fucked up. Let them be actually messy (and not that they'll talk about it --- show it. It was shown a bit for Ead and Sabran in the beginning but then both mellowed out). Also I feel like actually having a discussion about, say, Virtudom's values and the restrictions based on that, would have done more about the feminism topic then just having a majority female cast.
it is past 2 am at this point so i will just sleep. it's not a bad book, it was just disappointing for me personally because I expected more in terms of character, analysis of the social situations, and pacing. i know some people really appreciate this book for being a standalone but it should've been either a longer standalone or two books.
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide and Incest
Incest is between a mother and adopted child. Adopted child commits suicide after learning he's married to the woman who raised him from infancy. Look at the cw page for this book to get the other major ones.